anatomy of a castle

[Mr.Froggatt]

OK. So, the basic rules for birthright castles are fairly strait-forward: A castle has a level rating from 1 to 10. The higher the level of the castle the better - the more units it requres to besiege it, the more troops it can contain in its barracks, the more it costs to build (i forget the exact numbers in each of these cases). A castle's level can be higher than the province it's in, and it protects the whole province from attack (unlike, say, a fortified law holding).

But!

the details seem pretty scare. In my campaign the two castles most commonly visited are Blacktower Castle in Roesonne, and Castle Aglondier (?) in the Free City. I've got maps for both of these from the player's secrets, but no clue as to what level they actually are. Although they're both reasonable castles, I can only assume that those in larger countries and the Imperial City must dwarf them.... and when building a castle from scratch, what kind of fortifications can you expect to include? How many walls, moats, guards and artillary per level?

What do you guys think?

[kgauck]

The most reliable way to calculate the strength of a fortress is to estimate

how long it would take to take it by siege, given an adequate attacking

force and a normal defense. Since it takes 3 months to reduce a single

level of castle, divide your result by 3 months and you have the level of

your castle.



This requires a familiarity of medieval sieges. (If this idea disturbs you,

I hypnotise you now to forget you have read this.) Blacktower Castle looks

to me like a 9 month siege (other opinions welcome). It would be a 12

monther with a moat, but alas for the baroness. So, barring other guesses,

I`d call Blacktower a rating 3 fortress. I`d also be curious if they built

the hill it stands on, or whether they cut a hill down to bedrock to build

the castle on. The latter really helps prevent miners from undermining the

walls during a siege.



Is Proudglaive fortified? It could well be a level 1 fortification.



Castle Aglondier in the Free City looks like a 2 based on the height of its

keep, but its really part of the fortified city. I`d call the whole Free

City a Fortress 4, with the last 6 months of defence being the Castle. The

Castle Aglondier is harder to seperate from the city, though.



Kenneth Gauck

kgauck@mchsi.com

[Trithemius]

I`ve been trying to come up with the difference between holding forts and

provincial forts (a.k.a. castles). Holding forts defend -only- the holding,

provincial forts can defend every holding in the province, prevent pillaging

(IIRC?), and threaten enemy lines of advance (stop the enemy from moving on,

unless the fort is besieged).



To my mind a holding fort is a small castle or keep; whereas a provincial fort

is either several small well-placed castles (of a similar size to holding

forts) or one totally massive edifice, like Vauban`s Liege or Caernarfon or

Krak de Chevaliers, with a few outlying towers or bastions in strategic spots.



I generally say that holding forts drop one level each month (i.e three levels

a season) and that provincial forts drop the standard one level each season.

Besieging the latter means either encircling the super-fortress or encircling

and reducing the smaller forts all at once. The numbers are pretty much air,

that I made up to create a real difference between holding forts and provincial

forts.



Fortified cities are something that I am a bit perplexed about. All this talk

of castles is fine with respect to Anuire, but I would like to know how long

say, Aleppo, could hold out. Or Damascus.



--

John Machin

(trithemius@paradise.net.nz)

-----------------------------------------------------

"Nothing is more beautiful than to know the All."

-----------------------------------------------------

- Athanasius Kircher, `The Great Art of Knowledge`.

[Osprey]

I've also wondered about the differences betwen provincial fortifications and fort. holdings. As to how long they take to siege?

In my latest Battlesystem version I decided that since provincial castles cost twice as much, they are roughly twice the total size and capacity.

I decided fortified holdings could hold 1 company per level of fortification max., and provincial castles could hold 2 companies per level.

When under siege, both types lose 1 level per season. If this drops the castle's capacity below the current garrison, excess units are lost to disease and/or starvation. So big garrisons mean attrition begins much sooner, but it dissuades assault.

How do you run a castle assault if the provincial fortifications are spread out between numerous small castles and walled towns or cities? I think it's only very interesting and challenging to the invader if there's a single large castle rather than multiple small ones, although having a large walled city as an outer ring of a concentric fortress is feasible. I would give a city's fortifications (outer ring only) something like 1/2 the provincial fortification's level, while the castle propoer would be full strength.

[kgauck]

Cities come in two kinds, those with a port, and those that will surrender

before they starve. The bigger the city the more challenging the food

problem. One nice solution might be to think of the province loyalty rating

as a kind of defense, and reduce the loyalty by one step every month (unless

food comes in and they believe you intend to relive the siege). You can

certainly imagine using Espionage Actions to reduce a cities loyalty while

you camp oustside until the city fathers surrender. This should be easier

than using Espionage to find someone willing to commit treachery and able to

be useful.



One might envision Henry V`s speach before the half-achieved Harfleur as

being an Agitate action.



Kenneth Gauck

kgauck@mchsi.com

[teloft]

I was just reading about alexsander the grate concerer of persia.

there was this city on a small isle not fare from the coast.

He took thet fort by 7 mons of hard work. he had his people build a land bridge betvine the coast and the casle-iseland. and orderd the make of a fleat from his allaies to cut of all trafic to the iseland by sea.

after the 7 monts the landbridge was compleate. and he could storm the casle. braking down the city walls by normal battering ram. Then he killed half of the people and the rest went to slave markets in africa. eraning him some coins. This landbridge is still there.

This would be a build action. thet took 6 or 7 monts to complete. then taking the fort was no big deal

To take down a well fortified casle you sould have more then one way to do it.

1. like troy. be inside then open the gates.
2. build something thet will render the fort useless.
3. starve the city till none is left.
4. brake the moral. and have them surender.

[Trithemius]

Osprey:

> How do you run a castle assault if the provincial fortifications are

> spread out between numerous small castles and walled towns or cities? I

> think it`s only very interesting and challenging to the invader if

> there`s a single large castle rather than multiple small ones, although

> having a large walled city as an outer ring of a concentric fortress is

> feasible. I would give a city`s fortifications (outer ring only)

> something like 1/2 the provincial fortification`s level, while the

> castle propoer would be full strength.



It`s never happened?

Assaults are inherently costly and risky endeavours and my players have always

tended to err on the side of caution (those that didn`t err on the side of

caution fortunately (for them) did not face forts).



Also, not all of my palyers have been wargaming nuts like myself. If the

players are uninterested, I tend to abstract.



That being said, I believe that a province fort would include the kind of

castles that I consider to be convered by the "holding fort". This probably

includes at least one really large fort (in a large province). I do not see

a "holding" as one discrete building, but rather several smaller structures

and possible one large one (in larger holdings). A temple (4) is not just one

cathedral, but also abbeys and shrines and lesser temples. A castle (4) is not

just one fortification, although there will be a "main" fortified area. In the

main I am trying to add to holdings, not take from them.



--

John Machin

(trithemius@paradise.net.nz)

-----------------------------------------------------

"Nothing is more beautiful than to know the All."

-----------------------------------------------------

- Athanasius Kircher, `The Great Art of Knowledge`.